Today The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling welcomes to episode #258 former WWE Ring Announcer and Author of the book “Best Seat In The House”, Justin Roberts. Justin takes John and Chad ringside for some of the finest moments of his career in the WWE as well as breaks down the controversy surrounding JBL and what he wrote about in his brand new autobiography.
The positive response to his book:
“It’s been great. It really has been 100% positive which is awesome because that was the idea. I wanted to put out something that I could be happy with and it took a long time before I was happy with what was there so once it was what I had wanted than it went out and I’m glad that people are reading it and I’m glad that people are liking it. They understand that it is a true story so it is not anything that I am twisting and I’m not taking any stories and making them more entertaining it is just how my story played out.”
How his book has played into this whole Mauro Ranallo / JBL situation:
“Obviously what I talk about in my book is what happened for sure to me. It is not anything that is speculation or something that may or may not have happened it is what I went through and everything I put in there is legit and everything that I said happened, happened. I wasn’t putting it in there to kick up dust and now years later with this being my story and with the speculation of what’s going on with Mauro and JBL and what may or may not be and because of that it ties into the fact that I talk about everything I went through.”
The difference between the two era’s locker room environments:
“In that era and culture as far as the locker room enforcer and all of that and his cabinet (JBL had a “Cabinet” on TV) and he had one behind the scenes and they made life hell for me. It wasn’t good natured-fun ribbing it was hell for a long time. That could have easily been stopped by management because management was well aware of what was going on and it wasn’t because management there would not say we don’t allow that it was more like (laughing) that is great and the story I tell about my passport being taken out of my bag and getting stuck in England when I came back, I came back to Vince McMahon making a joke about it because he loves that kind of ribbing. To him that is just ribbing. He doesn’t care what it does and how it affects people.”
“As far as the locker room enforcer like a JBL-type with a “Cabinet”. I don’t think that goes on anymore. Because that was in 2003 and I talk in the book about when Tommy Dreamer came in and how it was just a different group of people and how things really changed but at the same time where people are talking about “Fire JBL”, I am not looking to get JBL fired and firing won’t do anything because they have fired guys in the past just to take the heat off the company for a short time so basically that is just the culture there. There is a bullying culture and bullying mentality from upper-management and it goes all the way down from upper management and that does go on in many different forms. The constant threat of heat is something that is real and upper management uses that all the time to keep people in line and that is something that still goes on.”
How perception of Triple H has changed to the internet wrestling fan in recent years:
“This was a guy who was making fun of the Indy guys that now he takes pictures with. All of a sudden and now that they (WWE) realize that the football players and some of these guys that don’t know anything about wrestling that they were hiring for the Performance Center when they saw that wasn’t going so well they just turned to the guys that were already over and that way it made him look good to the internet and the internet has accepted him because he is running with the guys that the internet pushes. He was never for that in the past and all of a sudden is a different guy.”
Any instances where he saw Triple H bury talent:
“There are a couple of things that come to mind that I write about in the book. When he was going to be wrestling The Undertaker at WrestleMania he basically said he went into the locker room and he looked around and there was nobody for him and nobody at his level besides The Undertaker. So here is a guy in charge of building talent saying that no talent is up to his level and that is why he got to fight the Undertaker at WrestleMania again. At the same time when they did that story line with the roster walking out on the company and he basically came in the ring and said how everybody is outside but he could have a better match with a broom stick than most of the guys anyway. He’s always doing whatever it takes to make himself look like Superman and to put everybody else down. He’s probably the most insecure person I’ve ever met. Constantly needs people around him telling him how great his ideas are and laughing at his jokes and he buries talent.”
The theory that Triple H was always working with the main guy and was never THE guy in WWE:
“That is what all the guys will tell you too, all the guys will tell you that. They create this role for him to be the top guy because nobody is going to challenge it. That is what Vince pushes and that is what he pushes and so he is always the best.”
Is his book controversial:
“The only people that think it is controversial are people who haven’t read it. If you read it then you know that it is an honest story and everybody who has read it has said it is fair, it’s balanced (because it is) and it’s not controversial. If it is giving you new information that maybe you didn’t know about that is one thing but it not meant to be controversial. It is just my story and sometimes people aren’t used to hearing the truth. When you come out with the truth, like what we were just talking about with Triple H people say you are bitter but when you are there and you see everything happen you can honestly say from a first hand perspective that this is what it is like. If people are going to argue, they weren’t there. You also don’t hear a lot of people saying those kinds of things because nobody wants to upset Triple H, the top guy behind the scenes of the company and you don’t want to upset him because all of these guys and girls want to go back and they don’t want to make waves and upset anybody so they don’t really say anything.”
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Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
